on and gave us all the food we needed. Moreover, when we left
their land men were provided to carry the litters and the loads.

Thus, then, passing from tribe to tribe, we travelled on southward, ever
southwards, finding always that the rumour of the coming of "the god"
had gone before us. So gentle were all these people, that not once did
we meet with any who tried to harm us or to steal our goods, or who
refused us the best of what they had. Our adventures, it is true, were
many. Thus, twice we came to tribes that were at war with other tribes,
though on my appearance they laid down their arms, at any rate, for a
time, and bore our litters forward.

Again, sometimes we met tribes who were cannibals and then we suffered
much from want of meat, since we dared not touch their food unless it
were grain. In the town of the first of these cannibal people, being
moved with fury, I killed a man whom I found about to murder a child and
eat her, sweeping off his head with my sword. For this deed I expected
that they would murder us, but they did not. They only shrugged their
shoulders and saying that a god can do as he pleases, took away the
slain man and ate him.

Sometimes our road ran through terrible forests where the great trees
shut out the light of day, and a path must be hacked through the
undergrowth. Sometimes it was haunted by tigers or tree lions such as I
have spoken of, against which we must watch continuously, especially
at night, keeping the brutes off by means of fires. Sometimes we were
forced to wade great rivers, or worse still, to walk over them on
swaying bridges made of cables of twisted reeds that until I grew
accustomed to them caused my head to swim, though never did I permit
myself to show fear before the natives. Again, once we came to swampy
lands that were full of snakes which terrified me much, especially after
I had seen some natives whom they bit, die within a few minutes.

Other snakes there were also, as thick as a man's body, and four or five
paces in length, which lived in trees and killed their food by coiling
round it and pressing it to death. These snakes, it was said, would take
men in this fashion, though I never saw one of them do so. At any rate,
they were terrible to look on, and reminded me of their forefather
through whose mouth Satan talked with Mother Eve in the Garden of Eden,
and thus brought us all to woe.

Once, too, on the bank of a great river, I saw such a snake that a